From /p,t,k/ to 'Potake'

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Transcript of From /p,t,k/ to 'Potake'

From /p, t, k/ to 'Potake'Moving from sounds to wordsJessie SamsStephen F. Austin State Universitysamsj@sfasu.eduENG 440: Invented Languages (soon to be ENG 437)Examination of how language works and typical features of world languages in order to construct an invented language; also, examination of famous constructed languages (including Elvish, Na'vi, and Esperanto) in order to compare features of invented languages to those of natural languages. The final project of the course will involve students constructing a language for a client to better understand the challenges of constructing a language and linguistic principles at work in natural languages. This course is a service-learning course.Course descriptionRequired textsMark Rosenfelder's 'Language Construction Kit'Course binder with additional handouts made specifically for our course, including glossaries for terminology, worksheets, examples, and guidelinesArea 1: Sounds and writing systemsArea 2: Words and GrammarArea 3: MeaningCourse structureGeneral structure for class time within each subareaAssignments throughout the semesterAfter each subarea, students orally present their work to their classmates in short individual presentations.After each major area, students submit a written rough draft to me and orally update their clients, focusing on that newly completed area.At the end of the semester, students submit a final draft of a mini-grammar for their language.Lecture for terminology and examples from natural and artificial languagesIn-class activities/worksheets to isolate and work on specific concepts"DIY" days: in-class work days to ask questions specific to student languagesSoundsWriting systemsWordsGrammarMeaningThank you!Comments, questions, and/or suggestions?samsj@sfasu.eduInformation coveredIPA and anatomy of speech soundstypology of sounds across world languagescommon phonological processessyllable structure (phonotactic constraints)stress/pitch accenttoneStudent expectationsworking IPA chart of phones in languagejustification for patterns among sounds (e.g., non-human speaker with no teeth, so no dental sounds)sample (fake) words to show how sounds come together (including syllables, stress, and phonological processes)Information coveredtypes of writing systems and development of natlang systemsinfluence of available tools (medium)importance of anatomy of speakers (e.g., non-human hands)Student expectationsworking writing system (even if based on existing one) or justification for no writing systemsample (fake) words/phrases to showcase word boundaries/punctuationMoving forwardBy the end of Area 1, students have a sound system and a writing system for their language (of course, both are subject to changes during the semester).

They also have sample "fake" words to guide the overall sound of the language.Area 1 often goes pretty smoothly, with the primary difficulties being any unfamiliarity with linguistic terminology (like 'phonotactic constraints').

However, even with the onslaught of terminology, there is something to shoot for; typological principles help guide the students, and the end products are more easily defined and placed in a chart or two.And then I hit them with words.LectureMorphological language typeWord-formation processesMorpheme v. wordInternal/External meansIn-class activitiesbuilding English wordsidiomatic compoundsone word to many (and vice versa)4-step processProblems/Challenges"My words are all starting to sound the same.""I don't know what words to include in my language.""I don't even know where to start."SuggestionsStudent point of viewMy point of viewtoo many similarities to Englishinconsistencies between information from sounds (like syllable structure) and new wordsinconsistencies between wordsThe first major challenge is the material itself. Moving from a more well-defined target (a set of sounds and symbols for those sounds) to a moving target with more open-endedness provokes some students to near-meltdown status.

Furthermore, developing words is that middle ground between sounds, grammar, and semantics; there is no easy way to isolate this area from the others.Information coveredStudent expectationsmorphological type and grammarword order and typological word order correlationsnouns/pronouns: case, person, number, genderverbs: tense, mood, aspect, agreementadjectives and adverbssimple sentencesdescription of language's word order with examplesdescription of how language's nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are marked or used within sentencesfully glossed examplesIt's usually about this point in the semester when I hear a collective sigh of relief from the students. Area 2 is the biggest hurdle for students, and Area 3 is the reward for having survived.Information coveredStudent expectationssemantic categoriesconceptual termseuphemism, metaphor, and taboosemantic fields (e.g., divisions of time, directions, naming practices)examples of each of the areas coveredwith each set of examples, description of the relationship between the language and the culture of its speakersDirections: Your group will receive a root in English with its definition; from that one root, see how many new words you can create. For each one, figure out what process you are using to create the new word (e.g., affix, compound).

Goal: analyze the different ways in which English takes one base and turns it into many wordsDirections: For each of the following English words, make up an idiomatic compound that another language might use to express the same idea.

Goal: start thinking about common English words in a new light to get in a new word-making mindsetDirections: Pick an English word and look it up in another language to see how many of their words correspond to the one English word. Then pick a word in another language and look it up to see how many English words correspond to that one word.

Goal: get a better understanding of the "no 1:1 correspondence" principleGoal: Pick at least 50 words from the Swadesh list (provided on pages 260-262); take some from each section except for the “grammatical words” section. While you can get a head start on those, we won’t specifically be working with those until we cover grammar. You may end up changing your mind on how to do those grammatical words once we to the grammar section, anyway. You may need to choose words not on the Swadesh list to work with your particular speakers; use the list as inspiration--not strict guidelines.Step 1. Create groupsStep 2. Determine any language relationships and/or contactStep 3. Provide basic rootsStep 4. Utilize word-building strategiesWe begin this process in class with a workshop-style process. I float around the room while the students work, sometimes independently and sometimes in small (or large) groups.intimidatingly long word listsnot having a set idea of what utterances need translatedthe "word wall"dependence of words on knowing who the speakers arestifled creativity"brain loop" of particular sounds and sequencesperceived need to have every possible combination with no overlapsusually not in sound but in definitionsthe "English has it so I need it, too" phenomenontoo many scattered handwritten noteslack of connections between day-to-day workunbridged gap between areas of focustoo much focus on progression and not on the foundationMorpheme/word distinctionsFree content morphemea standalone morpheme with semantic meaning (e.g., 'walk', 'piano')Free function morphemea standalone morpheme with grammatical meaning (e.g., 'in', 'the')Bound content morphemea needy morpheme with semantic meaning (e.g., '-ness', 'un-', 'PHIL')Bound function morphemea needy morpheme with grammatical meaning (e.g., '-s', '-est', '-ed')Free morpheme = our notion of 'word'For this subarea, the focus is on content morphemes; function morphemes are more closely examined in the section on grammar.Step 1: Create groups Group the words you are using into the categories you want. You can use the categories provided for you by Rosenfelder in the textbook, or you can make your own. For instance, you may want to group some of the nouns by color and have green, nature, tree, grass, and leaf all based on the same root. Or you may want to group together nouns and verbs; for example, maybe you want say and word to go together. You can create whatever groups you want, but make these groups before you go on—it will make the next stages so much easier.

You do not have to put every word you work with into a group—in fact, natural languages often have words that could be related to others by meaning but have no similarities in terms of roots. For instance, tree, branch, root, and stick could all be based on the same root, but the English words do not share any similarities. But then English has words like communicate, commune, community, communal, communion, communism, and communicable, all of which (very obviously) share the same base.A brief introduction to morphological language typeFour popular word-formation processesAffixesprefix: 'un-do'suffix: 'speak-er'infix: Khmer's 'leun' ('fast') to 'lbeun' ('speed')circumfix: Hebrew's 'hadgel' ('big') to 'magdelet' ('magnifier')Compoundscombinations of free and/or bound: dog|house, arachn|o|phobiaoften idiomatic: forget-me-not, moonwalk, Ojibwe's 'dibik-giizis' (lit. 'night sun')ReduplicationHalkomelem: 'qwel' ('to speak') to 'qwelqwel' ('talkative')Marshallese: 'kagir' ('belt') to 'kagirgir' ('to wear a belt')Quileute: 'tuko:jo?' ('snow') to 'tutko:jo?' ('snow here and there')Alternationconsonant alternation: English's 'strife/strive', 'teeth/teethe'vowel alternation: Arabic's 'kitab' ('book'), 'katib' ('writer'), 'kataba' ('he wrote'), 'aktaba' ('he dictated'Internal and external means of adding wordsCognatesEnglish 'night'Dutch/German 'Nacht'Spanish 'noche'Italian 'notte'Latin 'nox'Greek 'nux'Borrowing'armada' from Spanish'raccoon' from Virginia Algonquian ('aroughcun')'philosophy' from GreekSound symbolismclosest thing we have to a non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaning (but still pretty arbitrary)Analyticclose to 1:1 ratio (one morpheme = one word)AgglutinatingFusionalmultiple morphemes per word; one morpheme = one meaningmultiple morphemes per word; one morpheme = multiple meaningsThese terms play a larger role in the grammar section.General advicesee what patterns are availablefind inspiration in both natlangs and conlangsdon't try to use everything you find (as Paul Frommer says, using all the spices in your cabinet to make chili won't give you good results)don't strive for perfectiontake breaks between word-making sessionskeep a chart of your sound system by your side when developing words (including syllable structure)Advice for record-keeping(turning handwritten notes into accessible information)Using spreadsheets to your advantageExample: Numbers (iWork)Table 1. Using a 4-column glossaryTable 2. Writing solid information in English glossTable 3. Making charts of derivationsDerivations for verbsTable 4. Organizing by sheetsinclude tables of (1) derivations; (2) grammatical information; and (3) 4-column glossary specific to POSHiutsath-EnglishversusEnglish-Hiutsathno glosses--only charts of grammatical/derivational informationEnglish-Hiutsath and by POSIf students organized their information when developing words, Area 3 is essentially writing about the work they already did while adding a few more pieces of flair.Building English wordsIdiomatic compoundsOne word to many4-step process